


I could pull back for you (because you are the moon)

by chshrkitten



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (2013)
Genre: Adultery, Angst, F/F, Femslash February 2019, Fluff and Angst, Pre-Canon, Skinny Dipping, but oddly enough no smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chshrkitten/pseuds/chshrkitten
Summary: To celebrate a very special occasion, Jordan and Daisy go back to the lake they used to swim in when they were young. Some final decisions are made.Written for a Femslash February prompt: “the moon”





	I could pull back for you (because you are the moon)

**Author's Note:**

> An additional warning: the word “whore” is used at one point, in reference to sex work.

The moon swings low above them, as Daisy throws herself bodily into the water. It’s cold enough to sting, and she screams a laugh as the temperature hits her hard. 

On the shore, Jordan stands with arms folded and head cocked down to watch Daisy jump up and down in the water to warm herself. Her flying hands send up wide sprays of lakewater like white lace in the moonlight. She’s still laughing; her teeth and hair gleam white. “Jordan, you _need_ to come in! I promise, it’s warming up for me already!”

“In a minute.” Jordan makes her way carefully down the bank, gripping black mud between her toes in an effort to keep from falling. She lowers one foot into the shallows, and ripples of silt begin to spread through the water. 

“No, don’t do it like that, it feels even colder if you don’t get it over with. Just plunge in! You’ll freeze, but it’ll feel amazing!” Daisy leans back and kicks her feet out above the surface. “See?”

“I thought we were going to keep your curls dry.” Jordan reminds her half-heartedly. It's too late now, anyway. “For the hairdresser tomorrow?”

“It’ll be fine, Jordan.” Daisy brushes off the concern with a literal wave of hand. “She can redo my hair if I want her to. It is my wedding.”

——

Jordan had been staying in a guest room at the Fay home—Daisy “simply could not hear” of her oldest friend having to take out a hotel room while back in town for the wedding—but Jordan suspected that if she hadn’t been in the same building already, Daisy would likely have walked across the city barefoot in her nightgown without a second thought. It was the type of thing Daisy would do, once she had an idea in her head. 

Either way, Jordan had been woken just after midnight to a whisper of her name, and a figure standing over her bed. “Daisy?” She’d murmured, pulling off her black silk sleep mask and throwing it down on the mattress beside her. “What on earth—?”

“Shh!” Daisy crouched over her and put one finger over her own lips in an exaggerated shushing motion. “We have to sneak out.”

“Did someone break in?” In Jordan’s sleepy-hazed mind, the question seemed logical. Daisy giggled. 

“No, silly. But it’s the night before my wedding, and I bet Tom and his friends won’t be back till morning anyway, and we’re sneaking out.”

“Oh.” Jordan sat up. “Well, alright then. But give me a minute to dress first.”

Daisy shook her head, smiling her lovely I-have-secrets smile. “No need. Just bring a coat and come with me, quick!”

——

By the time Jordan is up to her ankles in the shallows, Daisy is spread out on her back and floating on the gentle waves of the lake. Jordan pauses for a moment to watch her. Daisy is staring up at the moon, face worryingly impassive. 

_Fuck it._ “Alright,” she calls out. “I’m coming in.” Jordan braces herself, then strides briskly forward in to the lake. When the water reaches her sternum, she leans forward and cuts through in a neat breaststroke. 

Daisy, of course, is whooping. They’re lucky they’re far from the house now. “How does it feel?” She shouts to Jordan, even though they’re now less than six feet apart.

“Damn cold.” Jordan answers, but she’s smiling too. 

Daisy laughs. “You’ll get used to it.”

“I know.”

——

They were rushing through the night-shadowed grounds behind the Fay house, dodging geometric flower beds and perfectly manicured shrubs, when Jordan finally thought to ask the obvious question. “Where are we going?”

“The lake!” Daisy stage-whispered, without pausing or losing her tight grip on Jordan’s hand. Jordan smiled tightly. Of course, Daisy would think of the lake. It’s almost touching. 

If Jordan was the type to let her heart break, it would be this night that finally broke it. Not even the damn wedding itself, just this. 

——

For a long and peaceful span of time, they float spread-eagled side-by-side. Uncharacteristically, it’s Jordan that reaches out to take Daisy’s left hand in her right, just the way they used to hold hands when they were little. The stars sparkle above them, and it’s one of those nights where the sky seems unbearably vast. 

“Jordan?”

“Yes, my Daisy?” She tries to make her voice bright, and of course she succeeds.

But Daisy still asks. “Are you dreadfully angry at me?” 

Jordan laughs. “Why would I ever be angry at you?” It’s the truth, mostly. She always knew that at least one of them would get married eventually, and that it would probably have to be Daisy. She just hadn’t expected it to be Tom Buchanan, of all people, that got her. 

“Oh.” Daisy says, soft and tremulous and unconvinced. “Alright. How silly of me.”

——

When they got to the lake, it was exactly as Jordan remembered. 

“You and I came here all the time when we were girls.” Daisy said.

“I know,” dryly, “I was there.”

“And now you’re here again!” Daisy grinned triumphantly, as though she had just won a crucial argument.

“You have me there.” Jordan acquiesced. Sometimes it was better just to let Daisy have her ideas, even if they aren’t externally comprehensible. 

Anyway, Jordan had more important actions to decipher, because Daisy had just stepped forward and started undoing the ties at the front of her nightdress. 

“Oh.” Jordan said, laughing. “You actually want to swim tonight.”

“Why, of course!” Daisy glanced back at her with round eyes. “What else would we ever be here for?”

“I don’t know, some silly nostalgia thing?”

“Is it silly?” Daisy asked, slipping her dress off over her head. “Well. I always have been a silly girl, haven’t I?”

And then she was bare in the moonlight, body sinuous and proud. 

_Damn, she’s gorgeous._ It pissed Jordan off a little, honestly. Daisy’s supposed to be the one pining, not her. Jordan is supposed to take what she wants. 

So she stepped forward, and stripped off her own nightclothes with minimal ceremony. She threw back her chest, daring Daisy to look. 

Daisy looked, and kept looking.

“I wonder,” Jordan made herself say casually, “if the water won’t be too cold. After all, it is only March.” 

“Oh, no, it’ll be fine!” Daisy protested, her eyes darting back up to Jordan’s face. “Please, I really, really want to do this!”

“Why?” Jordan asked, sidetracked by her own curiosity. “I mean, it’s quite sweet of you to think of this place, but what does it matter if we actually swim here tonight or not?”

“I just….” Daisy reached up, playing with the ends of her carefully coiffed curls, “it’s only that, Tom’s out with his friends. For the bachelor party, they said.”

“And?”

“And Tom wouldn’t tell me where they were going, even though I must have asked about him twenty times. Now, I think that’s strange. That is strange, isn’t it?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Men.” Jordan said vaguely. If Daisy doesn’t realize her husband is blatantly out fucking a whore right now, Jordan doesn’t need to be the one to inform her. “Who knows why they do the things they do?”

“I suppose.” Daisy said, glancing restlessly at the water. “Anyway, I thought that perhaps if I came here, with you, it would be like my own bachelor party.”

_Complete with your confirmed bachelorette._ Jordan thought, with no small amusement. _This is so classically Daisy._ “I see.” She shrugged. “Lets swim, then.”

And Daisy jumped in.

——

“Daisy.” 

“Yes, my Jordan?” She giggles.

“Come here.” She tugs on Daisy’s hand, pulling her impulsively through the water. “Come back to the shore with me for a minute.”

“The water’s so nice out here….but alright.”

When they reach the shore, Jordan doesn’t wait long enough to give either of them time to think, instead pulling Daisy immediately into her arms. “Oh.” Daisy whispers against her, but Jordan doesn’t pause before pressing her lips to Daisy’s.

“Jordan, Jordan, wait…”

Jordan sighs, but pulls back. “Yes, my dear?”

“We can’t do this. I’m getting married tomorrow.”

“Believe me, I’m well aware. Now kiss me.” When Daisy hesitates, Jordan feels a bright flash of anger, even though she knows that this is the last thing she really needs to be angry about. But she keeps her voice casual, flippant, because that’s what she always does with Daisy. “Or don’t, if you prefer. But think about this: where do you think your bridegroom is right now? Do you believe he’s thinking of you? Are you going to go home and wait up for him now, like a good little wife?”

When Daisy kisses her then, Jordan isn’t even surprised.

Daisy always kisses so sweetly, pressing herself against Jordan like she wants to slide in between her ribs and stay there. Her cold fingers curl at the nape of Jordan’s neck, and tug gently at her hair where the scalp is most sensitive. Jordan’s hands slide down Daisy’s smooth back and come to rest just behind her hips. It’s strange: they’re quite literally embracing naked in the water together, alone, at night, with the moon rising high above them like an opportunity, but for once Jordan has no desire to make this anything more than a kiss. Daisy seems to feel the same way, because she presses even closer but never moves her hands from Jordan’s hair. Her lips shiver against Jordan’s, and she doesn’t think it’s from the cold. 

_Maybe you think you can keep doing this with me after you get married._ Jordan thinks, but doesn’t say. _Maybe you think that things can go on between us as before, even with a new husband in the mix. Maybe you can handle it._

_But I can’t._

——

The next morning, Daisy’s stylist asks her what on Earth “you’ve done to your _hair,_ Miss Fay. It was perfect yesterday!”

Daisy flashes an unsubtle wink at Jordan, who stands leaning against the wall.

“Maybe she slept on it wrong.” Jordan offers half heartedly, and Daisy gives her the same conspiratorial look they’ve shared a hundred times before.

Jordan knows this probably isn’t the last secret she and Daisy will ever have together, but it feels like the end of something nonetheless.


End file.
